Ambassador Michael W. Michalak

Press Conference

January 20, 2009

Ambassador Michalak: Hi everybody. Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Happy new year!)

January 26th is going to be the first day of the Year of the Water Buffalo. This has very special significance for Vietnam. Last night I was at a reception and I heard that the water buffalo is the vehicle for making all good things happen in Vietnam.

This past year has been a very good year for U.S.-Vietnam relations. Obviously the year was highlighted by the visit of Prime Minister Dzung to Washington and I believe that that visit took our bilateral relationship to a new level. During that visit we discussed our common interest in a strong, stable, secure and peaceful Asia and how the U.S. and Vietnam can work together to promote that aim throughout the region and throughout the world.

We followed up on that visit by doing a number of important things. We started the Education Task Force, and I’ll speak more about that a little bit later. We inaugurated security discussions between the Department of State and the relevant defense and security agencies here in Vietnam. We talked about the UN Security Council. We talked about global issues. So it’s true that Vietnam is continuing its integration into the global society and is doing an outstanding job of becoming a major partner for the United States, in the region and in the world.

In economics and commercial affairs our relationship has continued to grow with two-way trade continuing its growth, even during a very difficult 2008. We saw and continue to see American companies coming to Vietnam to look for investment opportunities and trading opportunities.

We believe that 2009 is going to be a difficult year not only for Vietnam but for the world as a whole, but I believe there are certain features of the Vietnamese economy which will position Vietnam well for getting through this difficult year and coming out better prepared for the eventual economic recovery that will take place.

Vietnam has joined the global community in working together to take the measures necessary to overcome the economic difficulties which we face right now. Within the government, work continues on the approximately one billion dollar stimulus package that the government is going to introduce. We are waiting for more details on that, but we believe that it represents an appropriate reaction to what’s going on and we look forward to working with Vietnam to make sure that that package is as effective as possible.

President-elect Obama has said that his first day in office is going to be spent working with his economic team to continue to craft our own stimulus package which we hope will have a positive effect on Vietnam and will help Vietnam to come out of this economic difficulty quickly.

We note that Vietnam joined other APEC nations at the APEC Summit this year in making a call for governments not to employ protective policies that will hurt global economic growth rather than help it. We look forward to Vietnam continuing its reform of its economic system, in particular the Project 30 on administrative reform which we believe is going to remove further bureaucratic obstacles to economic growth and will help Vietnam to come out of the current economic downturn.

So overall, even though it’s going to be a difficult year we should all remember that the Vietnamese people have a strong tradition of determination in the face of difficulties, and I believe this determination, the hard work, all of the traits of the water buffalo are going to come to play and will help Vietnam come out of this downturn as soon as it possibly can.

In the human rights area we continued our human rights discussions with the government of Vietnam and we continue to talk about areas where we have differences. We continue to advocate for greater freedom of expression and to call for release of all people who have been put in prison for peacefully expressing their views.

We believe that it’s in Vietnam’s own best interest to ensure that its people enjoy the full benefits of human rights as set out in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We believe that Vietnamese people love their country and are true patriots and that the freedom of expression only helps to strengthen Vietnam, not weaken it.

The United States does not nor will it condone the actions of or support anyone using or advocating violence for political ends. We do not support such persons in Vietnam and we do not support such persons in any country around the world. But we do reject efforts to improperly label as terrorists those who are doing nothing more than attempting to exercise their own legitimate human rights.

We are especially disappointed in the current chill on the media and we were very gratified to note the release of Nguyen Viet Chien, a journalist who had been in prison. We look on this as a positive sign because we believe that an open and vibrant press is essential to increase transparency throughout Vietnam and to aid in the battle against corruption. We join with other diplomatic missions in Vietnam in expressing concern over potential controls on bloggers and we hope that in the future the government of Vietnam will take advantage of our offer to provide technical assistance in a revision of the current draft press law.

We especially hope that the government will work with the international community in drafting a whistleblower law which we believe will also increase transparency within the system and again, provide the government with a vital tool for fighting corruption.

In my third area of priority, that of education, I have very good news to report. Last year Vietnam was number 20 in countries sending students to the United States to study. This year Vietnam is number 13 in that group, and the numbers continue to rise. We are making excellent progress on my goal to double the number of students going from Vietnam to the United States and I hope that sometime during the coming year I will be able to report to you that I have finally reached that goal.

I’ve just returned from Ho Chi Minh City where I chaired the second of my education conferences, and I can tell you it was a tremendous success. We had almost 500 people attending the conference representing over 80 American universities and educational institutions and close to 100 Vietnamese educational institutions. As you know, working on education is a long term project and we cannot expect spectacular results immediately. But this conference, which was attended by American and Vietnamese educators, by American government officials and Vietnamese government officials, began a true dialogue between the education community and the government on ways to improve our education relationship.

We talked about existing government of Vietnam programs and existing programs in the United States and we had a real dialogue on how to make those programs better. These discussions ranged from how to improve English language education in Vietnam, and how to improve the quality of teachers coming from the U.S. to Vietnam and going from Vietnam to the United States.

Many of the ideas we discussed will take time to go through the various approval processes and to actually be implemented, but I believe that the results of this conference will continue to come out long after the conference itself has passed.

The Education Task Force which met just before the conference started is also very close to finalizing its report. I can’t say too much about the report because it will be made to our governments’ leaders and they have to see it before we can make its findings public, but I think we’ve made excellent progress on moving forward with good recommendations for both leaders.

So as we prepare to welcome the Year of the Water Buffalo, and as I prepare to enter into the second half of my tour here in Vietnam, I remain optimistic. I remain deeply committed to expanding and deepening the U.S.-Vietnam relationship, to making more friends among Vietnamese people, to learn to speak Vietnamese even better, and to working to make the U.S.-Vietnam partnership the best it can possibly be.

So with that, let me open it up for your questions. What do you want to hear about?

Question: I am from VietnamNet. I am sorry to Angela but I have two questions. Could you please brief us about U.S. foreign policy under Mr. Obama’s administration towards Vietnam? And the second question, when can we expect the opening of a Vietnamese consulate in Houston?

Ambassador Michalak: Thank you very much for both of those questions. Let me answer the second one first. We are in discussions now with the government of Vietnam on opening a consulate in Houston. We would welcome that. It is tied up in negotiations over our consular districts here and consular districts in the U.S. and we hope for an early and successful end to those discussions. Exactly when Houston will open, I’m not quite sure, but I’ll tell you that the discussions are proceeding well. We hope this will be one of the early good things that happens during the Year of the Water Buffalo.

As for the first question about U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration towards Vietnam, I think we will see a continuing desire on the part of the United States to broaden and deepen our relationship with Vietnam in all fields across the board.

As you know, Secretary of State designate Clinton has visited Vietnam, and I understand that she still has very warm feelings towards Vietnam as a result of her very successful visit here in November 2000.

One of the advantages of being in the diplomatic service as long as I’ve been is that you get to know an awful lot of people. I have worked with Secretary designate Clinton and I have worked very closely with a number of her advisors who will be in the Obama government and who will be working on Asia. So I can assure you that the lines of communication between the American mission here in Vietnam and the incoming Obama administration are strong and open and I’m sure that will have a positive effect on our relationship with Vietnam.

I mentioned that we are very close to finalizing the Task Force Report on Education. That will be, I hope, one of the first documents that President Obama will be taking a look at as he looks forward towards his foreign policy for the future.

I can assure you that I will look for every opportunity to get some of the new members of the Obama administration to come to Vietnam as soon as possible. So I have very high expectations for the new administration, and as I say, I believe that the new administration has good feelings for the people of Vietnam and will want me to continue to do what I have been doing, and that is to expand our relationship here across many many areas, and to continue to make friends with the Vietnamese people.

Question: I’m from Vietnam Economic Times. I would like first to express my congratulations to you and to the United States because today is special and you will have a new President.

As you mentioned, when the new President takes office he will work on the stimulus package which may be up to $750 billion and as you said, this money has some positive effects for Vietnam’s economy. So can you please tell us how it will affect Vietnam.

And last year it was reported that Vietnam’s exports to the United States has slowed down. So will the new stimulus package help reverse the trend?

Ambassador Michalak: Well, I hope so. The short answer is I hope so.

The details of the whole package are still being worked out, but one of the primary goals of the stimulus package is to once again get banks lending to each other and to increase economic activity in the United States. So anything that increases economic activity in the United States will increase the level of imports going to the United States. Since America is the number one export market for Vietnam, anything that increases imports coming into the United States should have a positive effect on Vietnam.

For instance, all those economists are going to need a lot of coffee to keep them awake while they come up with this package, and that’s one of Vietnam’s best exports.

And we all know that President Obama loves to play basketball and Nike tenneshoes are also a good export from Vietnam.

Furthermore, anything that helps the global economic financial system get back into operating shape should also be something that has a positive effect on Vietnam.

Finally, increased economic activity in the United States should help in terms of remittances for the amounts of money that Vietnamese workers in the United States are sending back to Vietnam.

But let’s try to be realistic about this as well. Obama will just be taking office tonight and he will be working very hard on the economy, but working on the economy takes a while so we’re not going to see immediate results. But as the year progresses I’m hopeful that we will see an increase in activity in the United States which will increase economic activity here in Vietnam.

Question: I’m from the BBC. What can you tell us about Obama administration’s policy towards China and Southeast Asia?

Ambassador Michalak: Well, we have a very complex relationship with China and we have a number of economic and political linkages to China.

I know that in terms of foreign policy I have heard that some of Obama’s advisors are saying that early days the Obama foreign policy will be China, China and also China.

Secretary designate Clinton said during her confirmation hearings that she expects that we will continue to have our high level dialogue with China in some form, so I would expect that during the early days of the Obama administration there are going to be a large number of meetings looking at the current structure of our relationship with China and seeing where adjustments have to be made in order to fit the style of the new Obama administration.

The size and extent of the Chinese economy means that China is going to be a major player in the reform and solutions to the current economic crisis. China’s recent emergence on the world stage in terms of peacekeeping forces, anti-piracy forces, in terms of its contributions to global warming mean that there is a very wide range of issues on which we need to have a very vigorous dialogue with China. At the same time one of the lynch-pins of our policies in Asia has been our strong alliance relationship with Japan, and I know that that dialogue is also going to continue at a very high level.

Regarding Southeast Asia, with a President who has strong connections to Indonesia, and I also heard that one of his other relatives is strongly connected to Malaysia, and who knows what other connections he may have to Southeast Asia, I think Southeast Asia is going to be important to the new Obama administration.

Recently the United States named its first Ambassador to ASEAN, and ASEAN is preparing at the Summit to formally enter into force the ASEAN Charter, and the ASEAN trade negotiations also continue within ASEAN. So ASEAN and the strengthening of ASEAN is one big reason for the Obama administration to pay more attention to Southeast Asia.

Also APEC. This year APEC will be in Singapore. In 2010 APEC will be in Japan. But in 2011 APEC will be in the United States. This is another reason why Southeast Asia and Asia in general is going to remain high on the Obama administration list of priorities.

As I say, I do know a number of the people who are going to be working on Asia. All of them have experience not only in Northeast Asia but also in Southeast Asia. I believe that that experience also means that they will be paying attention to the messages that they receive from the Vietnamese government and from the American embassy here in Vietnam.

There are a number of reasons why Asia is going to be increasingly important in the future. The participation of Asian economies in helping to work out the current economic difficulties that we’re in, the emergence of ASEAN as a community and as a group of countries that is willing to use its collective voice in world affairs, and the personal ties that the President has to this region. So for all those reasons I believe you’re going to see increased engagement on the part of the new administration in Asia and probably a more visible engagement on the part of the U.S. government in Asia and in particular in Southeast Asia.

Question: I’m from Dat Viet. Can you explain about your priorities in the coming year?

Ambassador Michalak: As you know, Americans work hard to try and be as industrious as Vietnamese. So we try to do what I call multi-tasking. So I intend to continue with my three priorities being human rights, economics and education.

I think for the immediate future everyone’s top priority is to try to get us out of this economic downturn as soon as possible. But at the same time, education is enormously important because that is the key by which Vietnam is going to be able to continue its own economic growth and development. But that is a long term goal and it’s an issue that requires a great deal of effort over a long period of time.

So while we work on the economy and while we work on education, I think it’s also important to increase the participation of the Vietnamese people in economic and governmental decisionmaking. So I hope that we’re going to be able to work on all of those things at the same time.

Question: Secretary of State designate Clinton also gave good words about micro-financing in Vietnam. So what’s the embassy plan to do for micro-financing in Vietnam?

Ambassador Michalak: Micro-financing is one of the many tools that we have in our development portfolio. I think it’s one of the most effective tools that we have as well, because for little bits of money you stimulate creativity, you stimulate entrepreneurship, and in particular you help in the development of women. I think for all of those reasons we are using micro-financing here in Vietnam, and if we can get more resources under Mrs. Clinton, and she has already promised more resources, then I would look for expansion of those programs here.

Question: I’m from Lao Dong. What is your plan for Tet holidays?

Ambassador Michalak: [Laughter]. Well, I think I have been to almost every Tet party around, so I’m not sure how many more Tet parties there are. [Laughter]. I’m even having one at my house tonight. So after celebrating Tet with all of my Vietnamese friends, I’m going to go and visit my own family for Lunar New Year, but my own family actually is my wife’s family, is in Japan. So I’m going to go to Japan to visit my wife’s family.

Question: I’m from Dan Tri on-line news service. I would like to ask for your comments regarding the fact that China exerts pressure to stop the cooperation in oil and gas exploration between American companies and Vietnam. What has happened to Exxon-Mobil?

Ambassador Michalak: Actually as far as I know, Exxon-Mobil continues to hold talks with the government of Vietnam on doing work here in oil exploration. We certainly support continued investment ties between the U.S. and Vietnam in all areas.

Regarding the East Sea in particular, we do not take sides on the legal merits of the competing claims in the East Sea. But we object to any pressure or any attempt to put pressure on U.S. firms operating in that area. We continue to urge the government of Vietnam, the government of China, and particularly ASEAN to work together to try to come to a rapid resolution of the various competing claims in the East Sea.

Time for one more. Does anybody have another question?

If not, thank you all very much.

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